The Italian Competition Authority closes proceedings against the gas incumbent for alleged breach of Art. 82 EC by accepting commitments in the sector of regasification facilities without imposing sanctions (ENI)

On 9 March 2007, the “Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato” (hereinafter, also “AGCM”) closed proceedings against ENI, the Italian dominant undertaking in the gas sector, and its subsidiaries without fines and accepted the commitments proposed.
In particular, the AGCM had previously opened the investigation for an alleged exclusionary abuse of dominance by ENI in the sphere of receiving and regasification facilities. The latter, in fact, is the owner of the only LNG (liquified natural gas) receiving terminal in Italy and was thought, by the Italian Authority, to have overbooked the terminal capacity in order to prevent competitors from using the terminal to import LNG into Italy.
The proceedings had started after a complaint of the Italian Energy Authority (hereinafter, also